US to conduct second lottery for H-1B visas

WASHINGTON: In what could be good news for hundreds of Indian IT professionals seeking the H-1B work visa, the US immigration agency will conduct a rare second lottery for the most sought-after visas to decide on the successful applicants who didn’t make it in the first random selection.

The US Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) said on Thursday that a decision was taken after determining that the computerised draw of lots for H-1B visas conducted early this year did not give them enough numbers of the congressional-mandated H-1B visas.

The H-1B visa is a non-immigrant visa that allows US companies to employ foreign workers in speciality occupations that require theoretical or technical expertise.

The H-1B visa has an annual numerical limit cap of 65,000 each fiscal year as mandated by Congress. The first 20,000 petitions filed on behalf of beneficiaries with a US master’s degree or higher are exempt from the cap. Technology companies depend on it to hire tens of thousands of employees each year from countries like India and China.

“We recently determined that we needed to select additional registrations to reach the Fiscal Year (FY) 2022 numerical allocations. On July 28, we selected previously submitted electronic registrations using a random selection process,” the USCIS said in a statement.

“The petition filing period based on registrations selected on July 28 will begin on August 2 and close on November 3. Individuals with selected registrations will have their myUSCIS accounts updated to include a selection notice, which includes details of when and where to file,” it said.

The move by the USCIS to conduct the second lottery will provide another chance to applicants. It said that only those petitioners with selected registrations for FY 2022 are eligible to file H-1B cap-subject petitions. The filing period for those with selected registrations for FY 2022 was from April 1, 2021, through June 30, 2021.